Making a business of food culture.......
In Florence, learning the secrets of Tuscan food
FLORENCE, ITALY —
Cameras flash. Mouths drop open, and silence falls over a small group of
tourists standing in awe before one of Italy's oldest works of art — a
wall of cured meats.
A beastly aroma fills
the air. Legs of prosciutto and strings of salami form a canopy inside
the old Norcineria, a meat and salami shop in the heart of Florence. An
impassioned guide serves up delicious tidbits of gastro-history along
with a selection of dried ham, a food dating back to the Romans. And
from the first savory bite of finocchiona, a fennel-and-pork salami, the
shop is transformed into a food museum, where tourists thrill at eating
the art.
Tuscan food: It ranks
up there with Michelangelo's David as a reason for travelers to flock to
Florence. But getting a taste of a culinary masterpiece requires more
than just stumbling out of a gallery and into the nearest trattoria.
Tourists expecting to randomly discover a gourmet cafe often learn the
hard way that bad food happens, even in Italy.
Real Tuscan cuisine is
"better than the best sex you've ever had," according to Antoinette
"Toni" Mazzaglia, founder of Taste Florence, a gastronomic excursion
that she created in 2008 to introduce tourists to authentic Tuscan
cuisine. During the four-hour food crawl, Mazzaglia peppers guests with
tidbits of culinary history and woos them with tasty treats at wine
shops, bakeries, chocolate makers, gelaterias and market stalls. Her
vast knowledge of wine-making and food culture, combined with her
exuberant personality, make Taste Florence less of a gourmet crash
course than an act of performance art.
-—-
A friend and I meet up
with the American expatriate at the city's outdoor San Lorenzo market
at around 10 a.m., with my taste buds raring to go. We follow her
through a maze of leather goods to the nearby, nearly hidden indoor
Central Market. Seizing the morning, Mazzaglia, 35, pierces the
emporium's calm with a cascade of animated Italian and laughter.
"Ciao, Toni!" a
cacophony of voices welcomes her as she seats me and my friend on a pair
of stools in front of Nerbone, a rectangular, green kitchen. The
comfort-food institution has served Florentines since 1872, and to beat
the long lines of locals that form there every day, Mazzaglia claims
real estate early.
"Smell that?" she asks, inhaling deeply. "That's the boiled beef sandwiches."
Spinning around, she
flies to the counter to collect our first conquest, bollito di manzo.
Minutes later, she presents us with freshly baked rolls piled with thin
folds of pink brisket, complemented with a layer of salsa verde and a
dash of salsa picante. The flavors and textures meld in a complicated
love story — herby, tender, fiery and strong.
After this hearty
start, we stop by a pasta stall to watch workers cut fresh strands of
golden linguine and pappardelle. Then we slowly wind through the market
past troughs of sundried tomatoes, garlic and peppers, to a fruit stand
where we cleanse our palates with figs in preparation for a deep dive
into cheese and balsamic vinegar.
Perini Gastronomia, a
gourmet market shop stocked wall-to-wall with wine, olive oil and
balsamic vinegar, provides the backdrop for our next gastronomic
invasion. Mazzaglia serves us a glass of Chianti while the shopkeeper
prepares a cutting board with three rows of crostini toscani, Italian
bread topped with truffle butter, tomato chutney and chicken liver paté.
My friend and I moan between bites and do what Mazzaglia dubs the
"yummy food boogie," an eyes-closed, raise-the-roof jig.
The two of us are
still swooning over the crostini when another board arrives, bearing
slices of aged pecorino, or sheep's cheese, bathed in truffle-infused
honey, as well as chunks of parmigiano-reggiano drizzled with balsamic
vinegar. The pecorino bite unites earthy with sweet, while the
parmigiano number pits fruity against tangy, finishing with a subtle
kick at the back of the throat.
"That's the neck-gasm," Mazzaglia laughs.
She explains that
traditional balsamic vinegar, not to be confused with what we Americans
put on our salads, contains no wine vinegar; it's a complicated syrup
aged for at least 12 years in small barrels and verified by a European
consortium. A small bottle of the luxury dressing costs between about
$85 and $200 — or more — depending on how long it has been aged, and
Florentines pour it over everything from steak to gelato. In addition to
tasting the expensive traditional variety, we sip a plethora of more
affordable hybrid balsamics and ponder their subtle undertones. Raisins?
Dates? Oh yeah, it's made from grapes.
-—-
Mazzaglia, who keeps a
bottle of balsamic vinegar in her purse, fell in love with Italian food
and wine in 2002 while studying in Florence with the University of
North Carolina. She became a fixture at the Central Market, grocery
shopping and befriending chefs and shopkeepers.
"When I told my dad
that I was moving to Italy, he said, 'You can't move to a country
because the food is good.' And I said, 'What else do you do three times a
day besides pee?' " she jokes. "I'm going to spend the rest of my life
eating, and I'm going to do it right."
For a decade, she has
honed her knowledge by giving wine tours, living at a winery and
studying at the Association of Italian Sommeliers. Taste Florence
developed as a response to wine tourists complaining about the city's
food. She realized that the problem wasn't finding a good restaurant for
dinner but knowing where to eat quality breakfast, lunch and snacks.
"They were eating slices of pizza, stale sandwiches, bad gelato and waffles, which aren't even Italian," she says.
She advises guests to
step out of their comfort zone when ordering in restaurants, meaning no
pizza or spaghetti Bolognese. She also warns them to run from any place
that looks like a cafeteria, as well as gelaterias displaying mountains
of gelato with figures of "Bart Simpson surfing on top." Quality gelato
is made daily in small quantities with fresh, not frozen, ingredients,
she explains.
Today, Mazzaglia's
foodies trade Bart Simpson and waffles for such fan favorites as
baccalà, or salted cod, a traditional dish of Italians who live away
from the coast. As we approach her preferred fishmonger, our last stop
at the Central Market, Florentine folk music booms and a tattooed man
dances from a mound of iced fish to a flour-covered counter to a basket
sizzling in oil. Between sips of red wine, he lifts a medley of baccalà
and calamari out of the fryer and onto a paper plate for us to share. He
pairs cheerful white wine and fresh lemons with our lightly crisped
seafood, which leaves us licking our fingers. Well fortified, we hit
Florence's back streets shortly after noon.
-—-
For another two hours,
we thrill over hybrid Super Tuscan wines at Coquinarius wine bar,
squeal over freshly baked pastries at Forno bakery, and chill over
creamy gelato at Perche No!, a name that sums up our tasting ethos: Why
Not!
At Coquinarius, a cozy
alcove just steps from Florence's Duomo cathedral, we settle in for our
own religious experience. The tasting begins on a sophisticated note,
with Bianca, a crisp, clean white wine that the owners of Coquinarius
make from Vermentino and Viognier grapes. We gradually progress to
darker, heavier wines. And as we sip a bold Chianti Reserve, Mazzaglia
saturates us with information about wine-making and grapes, like the
Sangiovese and Trebbiano varieties that make up Chianti.
We end our lesson in a
flirtier fashion than we began it, toasting with Lambrusco Cantina
Della Volta di Christian Bellei 2009, an exotic sparkling red. After
this baptism-by-vino, my companion and I decide that we're nearly fully
fledged Florentines, but luckily, we still have more to eat and learn.
Feeling slightly
buzzed, we reintroduce food to our systems with fresh pastries from
artisan baker Forno. At this family cafe, around the corner from the
Basilica di San Lorenzo, a woman in a paper hat serves up magical
deep-fried dough balls. The two-bite snack looks like a beignet without
sugar but tastes like a summer carnival, with a puffed pillow
surrounding a red garden tomato and a sliver of fresh mozzarella cheese.
I gobble my ball while standing inside the narrow bakery and suddenly
find myself in a vortex of cheek kisses between Mazzaglia and the
bakers.
As we move on, each place brings us closer to Tuscan nirvana, but in my mind, one sacrament remains: gelato.
And purity prevails at
Perche No!, a gelateria a block from the Piazza della Repubblica that
has been whipping up fresh batches of cream and sugar since 1939.
Mazzaglia warns us that shops all over the city make mass-produced
gelato using artificial powders and emulsifiers, not like the real fruit
and dairy that goes into the creations at Perche No! Inside the small,
unassuming gelateria, I delight in a medley of decadent flavors,
including rose, pistachio, honey and sesame, and cream and black
cherries. It takes all the self-control I can muster not to down each
silky scoop in its entirety, but I remind myself that the name of the
tour is Taste Florence, not Devour Florence.
Sitting at a table
outside Vestri, a chocolate maker a short walk from the Duomo that's
known for growing its own cocoa, I silently thank myself for having
saved some room as Mazzaglia presents us with the crowning masterpiece
of the day: a flight of handmade pralines. Flavor combinations of
chocolate and chili and coffee and hazelnut send our endorphins soaring,
but nothing could prepare us for the splendor of the ganache infused
with Earl Grey tea.
Chewing and nodding in unspoken approval, we find there's only one appropriate response — the yummy food boogie.
JUST THE FACTS
SLEEPING Granduomo is a charming hotel with apartment-style rooms and dazzling views of the Duomo. Doubles from $190.
Piazza del Duomo 1/7.
011-39-055-267-0004. granduomo.com. Il Bargello is a simple
bed-and-breakfast with modern amenities in central Florence. Doubles
from $130. Via dei Pandolfini 33. 011-39-055-215-330.
firenze-bedandbreakfast.it
DINING
Coquinarius is a casual yet sophisticated wine bar offering inventive
salads and fresh pasta with a boutique wine cellar. Entrees start at
$9.Via delle Oche 15r. 011-39-055-230-2153. muledei.it/coquinarius.html.
Glden View Open Bar is an upscale restaurant serving seafood, meat and
fresh pasta with extensive wine cellar, fantastic views and live jazz.
Entrees from $18. Via de Bardi 64/58r, Ponte Vecchio.
011-39-333-475-7400. goldenviewopenbar.com. Cantinetta dei Verrazzano is
a traditional eatery specializing in stuffed focaccia, meat and cheese
plates and its own wines. Entrees from $19. Via dei Tavolini 18r.
011-39-055-268-590. verrazzano.com/en.
DOING Taste
Florence is a gastronomic excursion tasting Florence's best food and
wine. Florence Food Tour, Monday-Saturday 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. until
Nov. 15. Florence Food and Wine Taste Around Town, Monday-Saturday 10:30
a.m. to 3:15 p.m. year-round. Both tours $97 per person. Tour meeting
points located near major monuments. Book online or by e-mail at tasteflorence@gmail.com.
011-39-388-169-6835. tasteflorence.com
WEB SURFING firenzeturismo.it/en
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-11-02/lifestyle/35505447_1_food-museum-salami-tourists
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